So that's why your open rate improved

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on July 01, 2008

You got a higher than normal open rate for the last email. Excellent. Must have been a great subject line. Unless, of course, the improvement was caused by...
  • a change in the from line so more people recognized the sender and opened the email
  • better branding in the preview pane, so more people recognized the sender and opened the email
  • clear information in the preview pane on the email's content, giving people good reason to investigate further
  • good use of alt tags, which led to people downloading images that were otherwise suppressed
  • you had an unusually large number of new subscribers arrive prior to sending the email, and new subscribers tend to produce the highest open rates
  • you added whitelisting instructions to your last email, meaning more people added you to their address book thus disabling image blocking
  • you sent the email at a different time to usual
  • you sent the email on a different day to usual
  • your reports include multiple opens and one of your subscribers forwarded your email to hundreds of colleagues and friends
  • you got more emails into the inbox and out of the junk file thanks to some backend deliverability improvements
  • you recently modified your sign-up form, so the newest subscribers were better targeted and more likely to open your email
Never assume the obvious explanation for improvement is the only explanation for improvement. Otherwise you might end up drawing the wrong conclusions about what works.

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4 Comments:

You forgot one of the most important, yet most overlooked reasons: less overall spam in the inbox that day.
By Blogger J.D., on 01 July, 2008  
 

Thanks JD. And let's add a couple more:

1. Your company just ran a huge TV/radio/direct mail/online ad campaign so you were top of mind when people got your email.

2. Your company is all over the news this week (ditto)
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 01 July, 2008  
 

Any advice on the merits of open rates vs. delivery rates?
By Anonymous Sean Kerr, on 07 July, 2008  
 

Hi Sean,

Recommended reading...

Meaning of delivery rates

On open rates:

Open rates guide
Get out of the numbers rut

Also do a search on "open rates" here.
By Anonymous Mark Brownlow, on 08 July, 2008  
 

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